Articles on the Intellectual Property Symposium.

Best: I enjoyed reading Venture Beat’s synopsis of the IP industry. The article hits on the non-IV players that may receive less press, but nonetheless are influencing the future of IP.

There are other companies trying to establish different IP business models. Thinkfire, IPvalue and IPotential are helping companies commercialize IP through licensing and advisory businesses. Ocean Tomo has also started a business where companies and inventors can auction off their patents every few months or so. Acacia Research and Mosaid are in the “portfolio assertion” business on behalf of individuals. And investment companies such as Rembrandt IP and Altitude Capital are investment companies that are financing later-stage development or litigation.

Others remarked during the conference that big companies such as Eli Lilly (through its Innocentive program), IBM, and Hewlett-Packard (our coverage) are working hard to invite collaboration with all sorts of inventors through “crowdsourcing” where they share research topics and get outsiders to contribute ideas.

Worst: The EETimes title suggests that Detkin and Meurer have opposing opinions as to whether or not the current patent system is healthy. I think it’s safe to say that most people engaged in patent law feel that there are problems with the current system. Their speeches do touch on different aspects of improvement. Detkin and the IV founders saw a great divide between individual inventors and corporate giants. As the system stood, there was a need for prolific yet resource-deprived inventors to use the USPTO to benefit from their discovery. (And, yes, I mean discovery in non-IP speak.) Meurer sees the problem rooted in low visibility and transparency of existing patents. That if alleged infringer’s had access to the IP landscape, then, perhaps, the courts would be so full of trigger happy patent holders.

While the two speakers may or may not see eye to eye on patent system concerns, seeing the title “Keynote speakers differ on the health of the patent system” was slightly misleading considering the content of the rest of the article.

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